Inspec Thesaurus Details

The Inspec Thesaurus contains controlled terms used to index records in the Inspec database. Select terms from the thesaurus to search the Controlled Index field or the Topic field of records.

Controlled terms—also known as preferred terms—are assigned to records in Inspec by subject specialists to represent the content of the source documents.

The Add button appears to the left of each controlled term. If the Add button is missing, the term is a non-preferred or "lead-in" term, and it should not be used to search the Controlled Index field.

The Inspec Thesaurus comprises approximately 400 hierarchies. At the top of each hierarchy is the highest or most general term.

A thesaurus term can appear in more than one hierarchy. It can also appear more than once in a single hierarchy. When you click the View in Hierarchy icon, you will see the hierarchy in which the selected term occurs. If the term occurs in more than one hierarchy, you can view the other hierarchies by clicking a number at the top of the hierarchy display.

From the Inspec Thesaurus, click the View Thesaurus Details icon to view the details for any term in the thesaurus. Thesaurus details may include any or all of the following fields, depending on the term.

Field Description
Thesaurus Term Displays the full name of the authorized thesaurus term. Thesaurus terms are controlled terms (or keywords) that are indexed in the Inspec Thesaurus.
Status Shows whether the term is still currently in use. If currently in use, then the field does not display. If not in use, the field display the word "Discontinued" followed by the year the last record was indexed using the term.
Used For Non-preferred terms. Use the thesaurus term in place of these terms. You cannot select these terms in the thesaurus.
Use Displays terms that were used for discontinued thesaurus terms.
Narrower Term(s) Controlled terms that are at the next lower level in the thesaurus hierarchy. They are generally terms that are more focused in scope than the thesaurus term. For example, digital computers is a narrower term for computer, which is a broader thesaurus term.
Broader Term(s) Controlled terms that are at the next higher level in the thesaurus hierarchy. They are known to be wider in scope. For example, computers is a broader term whereas digital computers and hybrid computers are narrower thesaurus terms.
Preferred Term(s) Controlled terms to be used in place of the thesaurus term.
Related Term(s) Controlled terms related to the thesaurus term, but they do not fall into the category of narrower terms or broader terms. For example, digital circuits is a related term - digital computers is the thesaurus term.
Top Term(s) Controlled terms at the highest level of the thesaurus hierarchy. The thesaurus term is subordinate to these terms.
Related Classification Code(s) Inspec Classification codes that are related to the thesaurus term.
Date of Input Date when the thesaurus term was introduced. Available for all thesaurus terms.
Prior Term(s) Controlled terms related to the thesaurus term that were (and may still be) in use before the date of input of the thesaurus term.
Scope Notes Scope notes and/or history notes for the thesaurus term. Scope notes indicate which concepts are covered and which ones are not covered by the thesaurus term. They generally indicate the meaning of a term or its particular use.